amazed at how often she “knew” things before they happened, yet she was never entirely comfortable with what she felt, saw and heard. For many years she questioned these “coincidences” not knowing quite what to think or willing to acknowledge nor accept the extent of her abilities.

As Elaine filled her busy life with the day-to-day activities of marriage and raising a family, her special gifts remained in the background. In 1974, Elaine became very ill with a variety of symptoms that the Doctors had great difficulty diagnosing. At one point they thought she might have leukemia. Unexplained internal bleeding caused postponement of much needed surgery to correct a painful back condition. Hospitalization became necessary as Elaine’s condition worsened. She was in and out of consciousness for weeks and almost died. Her condition was finally diagnosed as a rare blood disorder that could be attributed to her Mediterranean ancestry. While Elaine was eventually released from the hospital, she retained a vague memory of another “experience” occurring during that long hospital stay. She would not fully recall what that experience was, nor what it meant, for years to come.

Elaine’s recovery and single parenthood would consume much of her time and energy for the next few years. Still her special gifts did not go away and in fact seemed to become even stronger. While keeping the matter of her own abilities private, Elaine found herself meeting others who either shared a gift similar to her own or an interest in the subject of metaphysics. Realizing that she was not alone, and that others also possessed special gifts, made Elaine aware of the need for a kind of support group where like-minded individuals could meet and share their interests and experiences. This awareness, plus a growing sensitivity to her own intuitive awareness, eventually led Elaine to co-found a non-profit metaphysical study group on Long Island in 1983 called the Eyes of Learning.

When Elaine’s son Richard received a physical upon entering the Air Force in 1987, it was discovered that he too had the same rare blood disorder that had caused his mother’s grave illness and hospitalization in the prior decade. Only when Richard shared these findings concerning his medical condition with Elaine did those vague memories of her earlier unexplained hospital “experience” begin to resurface. Elaine intuitively “knew” that something very significant must have happened to her many years earlier and so her questioning began.

LESLIE’S OPERATION, 1996
In 1996, Elaine’s friend Leslie was hospitalized for surgery to remove a kidney stone. While in the waiting room during the operation Elaine sat with her friend Marie experiencing all the feelings of fear, worry and helplessness one would expect when a loved one is facing major surgery. While quietly sipping tea in the darkened room, Elaine turned to her friend and said “I can’t talk to you anymore, I need to face the wall.” Without a word, the two women re-arranged the furniture in the waiting room then Elaine settled down to look straight ahead at the blank wall.

Almost as though she was watching a TV screen, the operating room appeared on the wall of the room. Elaine could clearly see all the equipment, doctors, nurses, and her friend Leslie. Drawing a breath of surprise she turned to Marie and whispered “Oh my, I am in the room with them. I can see and hear them.” She saw the doctor make a hooking motion with his right arm and hand and say “It’s not working! It’s not working!” She could see the Doctor was perspiring heavily as the nurse wiped his forehead, suggesting to Elaine that there was a problem with the operation. She felt relieved when the nurse swabbed his brow a second time as he didn’t appear to be perspiring as much. The third time there was very little moisture on his brow and Elaine felt sure the operation had been successful. Marie listened and watched as Elaine repeated over and over what she had “seen”.

Shaking and excited Elaine was unaware that what she had been describing to Marie with words and hand motions was not in fact a projection on the wall but that it was visible only within her own “mind’s eye”. A tall gentleman sitting on the couch near the wall was also a witness to Elaine’s odd behavior.

Elaine was still excited when she got the first chance to visit Leslie in the recovery room. Upon entering the room she began telling everyone there what she had seen and heard. While they looked at her and one another strangely, Leslie and Marie looked at each other and smiled. They knew that Elaine could see and hear what others could not and enjoyed both her excitement and the public sharing of the experience.

Several days later during a follow-up visit, Leslie told his doctor, a well-known urologist at Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, New York, what Elaine had seen during the operation. Very interested, the doctor asked her to describe what she had seen. Elaine told him, “I knew it was a difficult operation because I saw you perspiring. I saw the nurse wipe your forehead three times.” The doctor laughed and told her she was right. He said, “It was a difficult operation but I wasn’t perspiring. In this type of procedure, the pressure often causes a patient to urinate and that’s what you saw - three times.” Elaine continued, “I also heard you say, ‘It’s not working, it’s not working. I can’t get it to work’ and you made a hooking motion with your right arm and hand.” The doctor then explained that the laser wasn’t quite ready when he needed it. He also had to move the instrument in a hooking motion in order to catch the stone in the basket to remove it.

Needless to say, the doctor was surprised at all Elaine knew about the operation. She had explained details that only those inside the room that night could have known and she knew it all. At that point the doctor shared with her an experience he had while a student in Italy. The day before his oral exams, answers to questions, not part of the suggested studies, came to him in thought. He knew three out of five answers and his study partner was astounded each time this happened and so was the doctor! In light of this account, Elaine felt comfortable that the Doctor would be receptive to her intuitive perceptions. She said “today, sitting across from me in your waiting room is a little Italian man who has a serious problem in his genital area. He is very worried and in great discomfort.” The doctor knew the patient however his schedule was so backed up, he did not have the time to continue the conversation. Elaine suggested they continue it at another time to which the Doctor agreed. Two weeks later, Elaine had a dream in which she saw the urologist. She called the doctor the next day and said to him, “I saw you in a dream. What were you doing?” He answered “I was talking about you to my staff before an operation. I told them about your ability and how you witnessed Leslie’s operation.” Elaine said, “No, no there’s something else. Who were you operating on?” The doctor answered, “The little Italian man you saw in my office and you were correct, he had prostate cancer.”

THE FOLLOWING YEAR, 1997
A year later Elaine had another experience. While waiting for Leslie’s annual follow-up with the same doctor, Elaine moved to the seating area near the television to watch the then new Rosie O’Donnell talk show. She admired the expensive sweater being worn by the gentleman sitting directly in front of her. Though at first she thought her eyes were drawn towards his attractive sweater, she soon realized she was seeing through the sweater, directly into the man’s body.

It was exactly like the vision she had of Leslie’s operation on the hospital wall. She was startled by a sense of absolute fear and the vision of a dark mass near the man’s kidney that seemed to be throwing out threads like a spider’s web. When Elaine and Leslie saw the doctor, they told him what Elaine had just seen. He seemed amazed at the details of Elaine’s description. The Doctor explained that the patient had been referred by a colleague. “Don’t worry, I can take care of his problem” the doctor said. Elaine stood back in shock, covered her mouth and began to tremble. Holding back, not wanting to contradict the doctor, she told him it was inoperable. “Call me in a month,” the doctor said, “and I’ll tell you the outcome.” Four weeks later a call to the Doctor would confirm her earlier vision. “You were right, Elaine” he said, “ it had metastasized and was inoperable.”

ELAINE’S EYES, 1999
In March of 1999 Elaine was diagnosed with cataracts and was told she would need surgery on both eyes. She felt a strong spiritual connection with the ophthalmologist during the examination and told him that someday he would become well known for a new technique that would be associated with his name. She “knew” at that time the operation on the right eye would be a success but there would a problem with the left eye. As predicted, all went well with the surgery of the right eye. During surgery on the left eye however, Elaine knew that something was wrong. Lacking the medical knowledge and terminology to explain further she kept repeating that something was wrong, but to no avail. The Doctor tried to reassure her that all would correct itself during the healing process but Elaine knew better. ‘No, there is still something wrong” she told the doctor, having seen it in her mind’s eye. There was nothing more they could do she was told and was sent home to heal.

Elaine continued to complain to doctor, family and friends while she was recovering. A secondary cataract formed and was removed with no difficulty. However, she continued to verbalize that something was wrong with her vision. Desperate, Elaine went to several ophthalmologists hoping one of them would recognize the symptoms she was experiencing. Each doctor said the implants were perfect and complimented her surgeon’s ability. They all recommended she return to the original surgeon, which she eventually did. He finally agreed to attempt the procedure a second time. During this surgery Elaine felt as if she were standing next to him and watching as she kept saying repeatedly, “No, you don’t have it yet.” Suddenly, the Doctor did something unusual, something he had never done before. Taking her off the chair, the Doctor and his nurse hurried Elaine down the hallway to another room. Even before she sat in the other chair Elaine “knew” and verbalized to the doctor and nurse that this additional procedure would indeed correct her problem. The next day, while sitting alone in a diner, she realized she could once again see properly. She rushed home to call the doctor and thank him, overjoyed, shaking and crying.

Elaine hadn’t wanted to be a complaining patient to a doctor, whose work his own collegues would later compliment as a ‘perfect implant’, yet her sense that something was wrong was entirely accurate. It seems that there was a tiny piece of cataract behind the implant causing the problem. Her insistence that something was not right caused the doctor to invent a new medical technique that successfully corrected an almost imperceptible problem. Elaine’s ophthalmologist, Dr. Sajid Malik, told her he now uses this new special technique often, with great success and plans to write an article for a medical journal describing the procedure.

SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS, 1999
Much had happened to Elaine in the last 20 years. Her intuitive perceptions had become much more developed, more frequent more accurate but still she felt uncomfortable with the gifts. Still she hesitated to “go public” and speak out about her abilities. What was she afraid of? Shouldn’t she be ready by now? Didn’t she have enough proof of the validity of her sensitivities? What would it take for Elaine to acknowledge the reality of the gifts that she had been given? Perhaps the answer lay in an experience that happened in a hospital many long years ago-that time when she was gravely ill but lived, in spite of severity of her condition. What had really happened Elaine wondered? She knew it was time to try to make sense of all the things she did not understand!

In December of 1999, The Eyes of Learning was featuring a well known author and hypnotherapist by the name of Dolores Cannon as a speaker on it’s monthly calendar. Elaine was able to schedule a private hypnotherapy session with Ms. Cannon. While regression of a patient to a point earlier in one’s life is now a common practice in hypnotherapy, Ms. Cannon’s specialty takes patients to previous lifetimes in what is known as past-life regression. With much pleading, Elaine was able to convince Dolores to bring her back hypnotically to May of 1974 to relive those events Elaine could not remember. Under hypnosis, Dolores brought Elaine back to the hospital room where she lay gravely ill but, much to her surprise, Elaine was both laying on the bed AND hovering near the ceiling! She was surrounded by row upon row of what looked like glowing light bulbs that she knew to be beings of light! Dressed in long white robes, Elaine recognized other beings with white hair as the same spiritual master teachers she had been seeing over years of private meditation. When she looked down from the ceiling, she saw and heard the Doctors in conversation with her daughter Lori. The Doctors were explaining that they would have to replace all of Elaine’s blood and they did not think that she would live. Regretably, the wrong blood had been sent initially and they would need to wait for a replacement. When it finally arrived, Elaine saw the blood being removed and “knew” it was “contaminated with the illness of soon to be death.” Then the words of the white Masters said that she would live, it would be a miracle and she had a “soul path”. Elaine prayed that if she got well she would do God’s work.

Upon awaking from her hypnotic trance Elaine realized that she had had a “near death experience” twenty-five years ago. She had been given a second chance because there was something she still needed to do before her time on earth was over. This provided Elaine with the answer she was looking for and the courage to move forward.

PROLOGUE, 2002
After countless years of questioning, doubting and working in the background, Elaine is now ready to fulfill the agreement she made in exchange for her life that day. She believes her soul path is to help others develop their own special gifts. Just as she was unwilling to recognize, acknowledge and fully accept the gifts she was given, she knows many others just like her are still struggling with the implications of having intuitive abilities of their own. She would like to see the Eyes of Learning expand outside of Long Island to afford other seekers nationwide the metaphysical teaching and learning opportunities that helped her though times of fear and self doubt. By bringing her story to others she hopes to make them feel less afraid and to help them to learn how they can enhance their lives and the lives of others by developing their own gifts. To that end, Elaine continues to serve God not through religious but through non-denominational spiritual teaching, counseling and hypnotherapy. She has finally come to terms with her clairvoyant, clairaudient and clairsentient and telepathic abilities and now helps others to “see beyond their eyes” too.

Elaine Resnik does monthly lectures at Borders Books in Westbury, NY and can usually be found at scheduled lectures and workshops for the Eyes of Learning at Levittown Hall.

UPDATE: Elaine's eye surgeon has begun lecturing on the new technique he discovered at Elaine's urging.

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